Rocky VII
Rocky VII is the second episode of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series. Description Pegasus forces Yugi to battle in the Shadow Realm. Summary At school, Joey Wheeler and Tea Gardner are playing Duel Monsters. Ryo Bakura asks if he can play, but Yugi Muto refuses to let him as Bakura is not a main character. During the duel, Joey cannot figure out the right way to win, so he loses with Tea commenting that he is an idiot. Tristan Taylor then starts singing the "Barney the Dinosaur" friendship song. Outside, Joey asks Yugi to teach him to be a better duelist. Yugi takes a look at Joey's deck, and thinks to himself that Joey's deck is more powerful than his, and it also has the Dark Magician. Yugi lies to Joey that his cards are weak and takes him to his grandfather to teach Joey to be a better duelist. Solomon Muto is seen looking like he is in love with a Black Luster Soldier poster he hung up, and suddenly Yugi and Joey arrive where Joey asks Solomon to teach him. Solomon agrees to teach Joey with rigorous off-screen practice. Joey wants a training montage but Solomon asks him if he thinks he's Rocky Balboa. At night, the group is watching Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood duel, where they parody "Beavis and Butthead". Weevil wins the duel and gets a trophy from Maximillion Pegasus. Solomon walks in and says that Yugi has a package. Yugi opens it to find Duelist Kingdom gear and a videotape. Yugi inserts the videotape and Pegasus appears, where he uses his powers to stop time and challenges Yugi to a shadow duel. Yugi transforms into Yami Yugi and the two duel with a 15 minute time limit. Pegasus then uses a monologue to stall the duel for time and as a penalty game, he steals Solomon's soul, where he briefly appears on the TV screen. Yugi changes back and his friends get unfrozen, where they see Yugi yelling at the TV for his grandpa, with his friends telling him to get out of the way. Cultural references * The episode title is a reference to the Rocky series of films. * The intro alludes to '50s sitcoms' end credits where a voiceover would state the guest stars in that episode. * Yami's "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Pegasus" retort is a reference to Arnold Jackson's catchphrase "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis" from the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. * The ''24''-style scene shows four split screens with a timer, much like the commercial break scenes shown in the series. * The cursed video tape and the phrase 'seven days' are references to ''The Ring''. * Tristan's Barney voice is a reference to the fact that his voice resembles that of Barney the Purple Dinosaur. Tristan points to Two-Headed King Rex and says "Hey look, I'm on TV", to which Joey replies "That's just a purple dinosaur." * The voices of Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor are references to the show Beavis and Butt-head.